Achievement Emotions Questionnaire-Mathematics (AEQ-M) in adolescents: Factorial structure, measurement invariance and convergent validity with personality

ABSTRACT

The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire-Mathematics (AEQ-M) is a self-report measure of emotions experienced in class, when self-studying, and during tests for the domain of mathematics. Our aim was to present a Portuguese version of this instrument for use with adolescents and to test its reliability, factorial structure, measurement invariance, and construct validity with personality dimensions. Our sample comprised 1,387 Portuguese students from the 7th, 8th and 9th grades (mean age = 13.2 years). Student responses to the AEQ-M were found to be reliable. Confirmatory factor analysis validated a seven-emotion × three-setting factorial structure. This model demonstrated measurement invariance across gender and grade. As a demonstration of construct validity, the emotions measured by the AEQ-M showed a pattern of associations with psychobiological personality dimensions that were in line with theoretical predictions. These results validate the AEQ-M as a suitable instrument for assessing adolescents’ mathematics-related achievement emotions and their associations with personality.

KEYWORDS:

• Achievement emotions
• adolescents
• mathematics
• measurement invariance
• validity
• personality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) under grants PTDC/MHC-CED/2224/2224/2014 and CIPD-BI-UID/PSI/04375/2016, and by Fundação Minerva - Ensino, Cultura e Investigação Científica (the founding organization of the Lusíada Universities).